When Canon Dr. Anita Gittens left Toronto to attend the 19th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in Belfast, being elected to the council’s standing committee was not on her radar.
“It wasn’t something that I had given any thought at all to,” she says.
But when she discovered she’d been nominated for one of five open spots on the committee, which meets between sessions of the full council to continue its work, a seed of excitement was planted.
“I thought it would be quite an opportunity. There are many things that I felt I could take to the table, and some ways that I thought I could be of help,” she says. “I had no attachment to the outcome. If it didn’t happen, it was absolutely okay.”
Later that week, when her name was the first read out, it took her a moment to realize she’d really been elected.
“It’s absolutely an honour and a privilege, because when you see the folks in the room and know that they’re representatives from 165 countries across the world, it’s quite the feeling,” she says.
Canon Gittens is one of the Anglican Church of Canada’s three delegates to the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), along with Bishop Riscylla Shaw and the Rev. Marnie Peterson, a priest in the Diocese of New Westminster. The ACC, which meets every three years, is one of the Anglican Communion’s four “instruments of Communion.” It includes clergy, bishops and laity from across the Communion who consult on matters related to mission, advocacy and Christian unity.
It’s also the only instrument of Communion that includes lay people. The other three instruments are the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference (a once-a-decade gathering of all Anglican bishops) and the Primates’ Meeting (a regular gathering of presiding bishops from each national or regional church).
Canon Gittens’ qualifications to serve on the standing committee are too many to name. Her involvement in parish, diocesan, national and international church ministry spans decades, alongside her work in healthcare administration. A member of St. Paul the Apostle, Rexdale, she has served with the diocesan Anglican Church Women, the Postulancy Committee, the Cast the Net steering committee, Diocesan Council and as a clergy coach. She is a founding member of Black Anglicans of Canada, chair of the national church’s Partners in Mission Coordinating Committee and a member of the Communion-wide advisory group for the United Society Partners in the Gospel.
“There’s a whole lot that I can pull from the skill sets, things that I have learned, things that I have lived,” she says. “I’m happy to use whatever skills, whatever tools I can use to help in the discussions.”
The ACC met this year from June 27 to July 5, dubbed ACC-19 – the 19th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council. Much of the conversation was focused on the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals, a theological document that considers what it means to be the Anglican Communion today. The proposals lay out a framework for how Anglican churches can deepen their unity, with some specific suggestions for changes to the definition of the Communion and its structures.
After considerable discussion, ACC-19’s members affirmed the need for “relationships and trust to grow” amid these conversations and called for further dialogue across the Communion over the next three years.
“The overwhelming thought was that it needed more time for reflection and discussion. We will continue the discussion and the dialogue and report back to ACC-20,” says Canon Gittens.
She says that while divisions within the Anglican Communion were top of mind, delegates expressed their desire and hope that unity would continue despite different views on doctrine.
“People were truly listening and trying to understand where the differences of opinion came from. They listened and they responded very respectfully,” she says.
The analogy of family arose often around the table, she continued. “There are many different family members. There’s some that we disagree with and there’s some that do not attend family gatherings, but at the end of the day, we’re still part of the family.”
As her work on the ACC’s standing committee begins, Canon Gittens says she would like to be able to raise the profile of the work of the Anglican Communion and its commissions within the Diocese of Toronto.
“As much as we can share a lot, we can also learn from the others,” she says. “There is unbelievable work being done by the networks and commissions that many folks are not aware of. Those are ways for parishes and groups in our diocese to reach out, to connect and work together, because so much work is already happening.”
As Anglicans around the world continue to consider what it means to be bound together in a global communion amid division, Canon Gittens says she hopes those conversations continue closer to home, as well.
“The Communion might never be the unified group that it may have been at some time. But acknowledging that and working together, learning from each other, listening to each other, respecting each other, moving forward together – this is a time like no other time.”
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